London – SAS Global Communications, an international provider of managed network and professional services, has signed an agreement with Colt Technology Services, Europe’s leading information delivery platform, to become a UK franchise partner for Colt’s portfolio of on demand cloud-based IT services for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), Colt Ceano. The agreement will enable SAS to order, sell, configure and manage services to meet the individual requirements of its customers via an online portal.

As a franchisee, SAS will be charged with the delivery of Colt branded cloud-based services to SME customers in the UK, including services for technical support, billing and account management. SAS also plans to make its bespoke service management portfolio, which includes proactive monitoring and predictive helpdesk services, available to Colt Ceano customers.

“This agreement is important to SAS, it forms a key part of our business strategy for the next three years,” said Charles Davis, CEO for SAS Global Communications. “One of our goals is to develop new and distinct channels to market that will both complement existing partner relationships and enhance SAS’s overall value proposition for customers. By adding the Colt portfolio to our own, we not only increase the quality and diversity of managed services we are able to deliver to our customers, we also increase the gap between ourselves and rival organisations.”

“SAS and Colt have formed a strong partnership, based on our complementary products and services, technical ability, focus on quality of service and desire to establish long term relationships with customers,” said Carol Alexander, franchise channel director at Colt.

Colt’s decision to appoint SAS as a UK franchise partner is part of a wider move to increase distribution of the company’s integrated network and IT services in Europe and expand its network of channel partners. Through its franchise partners, Colt offers a comprehensive range of services, designed to meet the specific needs of SMEs.

About ColtColt is the information delivery platform, enabling its customers to deliver, share, process and store their vital business information. An established leader in delivering integrated computing and network services to major organisations, midsized businesses and wholesale customers, Colt operates a 22-country, 44,000km network that includes metropolitan area networks in 39 major European cities with direct fibre connections into 19,000 buildings and 20 carrier neutral Colt data centres.

In 2010, the Colt Data Centre Services business was launched to deliver innovative high quality data centre solutions at a Colt or customer site. Our Innovative data centres are rapid to deploy, flexible and highly efficient. In addition to its direct sales capability, Colt has four indirect channels to market; Agent, Franchise, Distributor and Wholesale which includes Carriers, Service Providers, VARs and Voice Resellers.

Colt is listed on the London Stock Exchange (COLT). Information about Colt and its services can be found at www.colt.net.